Thursday, January 27, 2011

Warm Chickpea and Artichoke Salad

It was so time to get that photo of lentil loaf off the top of my blog!

Yet another recipe from the taste space here. I made this chickpea salad for dinner last night for some friends. I also made Robin Robertson's Turkish-Style Stuffed Eggplant with Walnut Sauce, and Amy brought a kale-tofu salad with dried cherries in it! In each of these dishes, something sweet and/or acidic (lemon, artichoke, tomato, pomegranate, cherry) is balanced by something nutty (almonds, chickpeas, walnuts, tofu). In this salad, the toasted almonds also add a really lovely contrasting texture.

The only actual change I made was accidental. In picking up fresh basil at the store, I actually got something else which may or may not have been epazote (that's what my receipt said, but sometimes it also says I was born in 1911). It tasted vaguely basil-like, though more bitter, so I just used it. I also one clove of garlic rather than two. I love garlic, but the raw stuff is so potent, and I think I might be slightly allergic to it.

And finally, I used artichoke hearts that didn't come from a jar. I was never crazy about artichoke hearts until I had the marinated ones from the refrigerator case at Trader Joe's. They are amazing, of a different class than anything shelf-stable you can find. I once recently compared these artichoke hearts to God's testicles, which offended pretty much everyone I was talking to... but seriously.

Oh, and despite its name, this salad can certainly be eaten cold as well.

By the way... I have heard that humans sometimes make meatloaf sandwiches, so I did the same thing with the lentil loaf. But I wasn't sure if this delicacy was a ketchup-mustard or a mayo-mustard phenomenon. I went ketchup, but I think the other would be better.

Hey Julia, I was in NYC this weekend and (while still catching up on my blogs), I made a trip to Trader Joe's to find the artichokes... but sadly, they didn't have them. Just the canned ones, unfortunately. I guess not all TJ's carry the same stuff? An East vs West phenomenon?